Pantera # 5357 - Rocky's 1973 L model

I have been threatening to do a write-up on my build for a while. I see all these great threads, for example the ones by Rob B., Kirk Evans, and and others detailing extensive, very high quality work being done to their cars.

My skills are not as tremendous, but I have the help and assistance of a an expert Pantera enthusiast and Hot Rodder (Wade - 4280 / Mark IV) and the resources of this board.

My project started as a new motor build, with upgraded performance goals. I wanted to "freshen up" the stock engine, and give the car more power, but retain the classic, stock lines.

Once the motor was built (about Feb., 2014), I pulled the original engine. That was when the scope of the project really changed. Things I found, and upgrades I needed boosted the scope beyond what I was expecting, but it all needed to be done. If you are in for a dime, you are in for a dollar!

My wife (first and only) was surprised by the workload, but what can be done?

I am far along, and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Hope you enjoy the pictures, and the details of my build progression.

Here's my car before the resto. I'll try and shrink the pictures in future posts.

The engine is a basic 351C, sonic tested, and bored .030 over. It is designed (hopefully) for reliability / durability, oil control, and additional power. I am working to make it "tractable" on the street. It is also intended to run on pump gas.

Significant effort went into achieving these goals.

It will be normally aspirated with a 735 CFM Holley (modified for "4 corner idle") and an Edelbrock Performer dual plane manifold.

Oil control scheme includes lifter bore bushings (Wydendorf Tooling and Oilite bushings, T. Meyer restrictive cam bearing set, appropriate plugs in oiling passage to cam, and a drilled "oil squirter" on the gallery plug by the distributor gear). The squirter directs a stream of oil onto the cam / distributor gear interface. Additionally, the oil pump and passages into the main engine feed were ported to reduce restriction in the pickup and feed circuit.

Did you ever see things that you knew were wrong, but hoped that "your eyes were deceiving you", or "maybe it's supposed to be like that"?

I saw a crazy coating / filling on the bottom of my swirl tank. It looked really funky, but I thought (hoped) it was "supposed to be like that".

I also saw small area of corrosion coming through on the passenger upright. "Maybe it wasn't a big deal", I thought.

Once I pulled the motor - It was apparently obvious. The swirl tank had leaked early in the car's life, and the first owner had the swirl tank patched / soldered / epoxied / etc. The tanks were a mess.

My belief is that fluid was dripping down into the passenger side upright, and corrosion had occurred. It looks like this had happened a long time ago, but the damage had been done. There were no other areas like this - it seemed to be limited to the passenger side upright. This exact situation was described recently in a Bosswrench post.

I tried to deny it to myself, but once the motor was out, I couldn't. The structure (upright) had to be fixed.

Prior to the engine pull I had been working on scraping the stock undercoating. I struggled with the options of using a truck bedliner (like the Banzai Pantera), or paint. I finally decided on Ford Grabber Yellow.

Again - I didn't realize the amount of work that was entailed in an engine bay prep. In fact, with regard to bodywork, there is never a point in which you can say..... "It's 100% done". You can always do more, scuff more, clean more, etc. I have to say, we did a good job of prep, and I believe I have a good foundation for the future.

I did not try and make the bay 100% pristine. Dimples / imperfections from the factory build remain. If someone wants to take it back to stock with the factory bedliner, they can have at it. I think my engine will look good inside the new, cleaned up engine bay.

Stand by for more pictures once I get them organized.

OBTW: Did I mention that my buddy 4820 / Mark IV has the mad skillz needed to execute such a repair project? Thank Gawd!

Lots of work was done while the "Big Cat" was in the shop. My goal was to get it in and out in record time. I believe the car spent about 3 weeks away from my house, and honestly, the volume of work accomplished during that time was eye-watering.

The inside of the radiator cavity was in good shape, but the bottom of the valence had seen it's share of impacts over the life of the car.

There had been some work previously done to make it look OK, but close inspection revealed that it was really a mess. Once we got into it, you could see that the metal had been pulled back out with a slide hammer ("the bane of artists in sheet metal"), and a lot of body filler had been used to repair the damage.

Wade fabricated a bottom panel, and reworked the existing metal to rebuild the "chin", like a surgeon resculpting the chin of a 42 year old Kardashian.

I think the results are spectacular.

While we were up front, we did a bunch of minor work to the radiator, reseal, clean, paint, and tie off the wiring.

We also added a hardline from the front to the rear of the car, that will provide an automatic air bleed to prevent air from being trapped in the radiator.

This one is in honor of Rob B. My rear cross member had taken a couple of hits back in the day, so we decided to open up the original box and straighten it out. This allowed us to add some improved structure in there.

You can see in the picture that the frame is sound. A 1/4" thick steel extrusion fit into the space like a glove, and is unnoticeable in the final product.

This gives me a robust jack point for the rear of the car.

Did I mention all this fabrication work was done by Wade (4280 / Mark IV)?

Thanks, guys, appreciate the compliments. This has been a long journey, and I'm happy to show off the results. Garth, not sure I will make it out that far this year, but who knows! I've gotta get it running, first!

Painting of the Bay....

Shot the bay with three colors / textures. Yellow for the main bay area, black inside the motor compartment, and a bedliner type substance on the outside of the frame, and inside the wheel wells.

It came out very nice.

Also powdercoated the rear suspension, and some of the accessory pieces (Electrical panels, tank holders, pulley).

We sprayed Bedliner, then I installed the original firewall insulation, then an additional layer of foil-backed fibrous insulation.

Finally, installed the stainless Steel Bulkhead Panels. "Nut-Serts" were set into the original firewall. The machine screws on the corners press the steel against the insulation to avoid any potential for vibration.

Nutserts in the steel also hold the tank cover on. More nutserts and P-clamps will be used to secure the engine bay wiring harness (which is just now reaching completion).

When I bought my car, the PO had told me about the rear bearing replacement in the uprights, and went to great lengths to describe the custom socket fabricated to do the job.

Prior to disassembly of the suspension I did a "wheel wiggle" test, and found some play in one side of the car.

Upon further investigation, it turned out the play was not in the wheel bearing, but in the bushings in the bottom of the lower upright. Here's a good thread with additional information on the bushing design:

We were in a rush to get the suspension reassembled, so Wade (always up for a challenge) suggested that he fabricate the bronze bushings. The bushings are standard metric size - the id/od/length are mm dimensions 24 x 27 x 29 long.

Here's a set of pictures. In the first, you can see (sort of) one of the offending bushings - it had to be cut to removed. The rest is the fabrication and assembly. Lest you be concerned, all bushings were reconstructed and replaced.

I had purchased (on a whim) two upright shafts (from Mayberry Pantera), and a complete bushing / ball joint kit (Maseratisource). All new parts were used in the reassembly.

While we were in there prepping the bay, and cutting on sheet metal, we decided it would be smart to make the bay obstructions removable.

A Sawz-All cut the bay brace, and a drill and chisel cut the e-brake bracket loose.

The Main Bay Brace required precision measurement and fabrication. These slip right in, and the brace is retained by the two forward suspension bolts.

While the e-brake bracket was of a slightly lighter construction, it required a stringer across the bay to give it more structure.

Steel Nutserts were put into the frame channel on both sides to retain things. It's plenty strong.

We chose to use the original ebrake bracket to reduce the amount of detail fabrication. All it really needed was a little more structure to hold it in vs. the force that will be applied by the lever and cable mechanism....

This was more of a challenge. My tanks were shot. The swirl tank had failed in the early days of the car, and had been repaired. Cutting it open and looking inside showed it to be unserviceable. The same situation was found on the overflow tank. It was held together inside only by the big chunks of rust.

I half-heartedly looked for some used ones (which of course needed to be in pristine condition). None could be found.

In consult with a master mechanic and fabricator, we decided on an approach that would cause the system to actively draw air from the radiator and the swirl tank into the overflow, by running it at a vacuum. It looks pretty slick. I believe the design was described in one of Carroll Smith's (manager of the Shelby Racing Team) engineering designs.

Here's the pictures. The two fittings on the tall overflow tank are the inputs (one from the top of the swirl tank, and one from the radiatior via hardline). The lower fitting is suction from the waterpump.

The overflow tank is under suction from the water pump, and will actively draw any air from the upper corner of the radiator.

The rest of the cooling system is standard, except the pressure cap has been moved to the overflow tank.

I had a little scare when I found that I only had 100 Ohms to ground on my alternator "main feed" with the alternator disconnected, but after some troubleshooting and test, first with low voltage, then with standard 12V, it appears that all is well.

That one is a "Eichlin" (NAPA) version, but they are all about the same - from outward appearances.

Engine should be going in shortly - possibly this weekend, but if not, but the end of the week, certainly.

Just to whet your appetite, here's a picture of the "outboarded" Compressor / Alternator setup that Wade (4280 / Mark IV) fabbed up.... Still needs a little adjustment work on the Alternator Tensioning system (minor challenge).

Looks great Rocky! I've got a question: you've got some moulding around the oval A/C hose opening next to the duraspark box. Looks like it is there to prevent chafing. What is that called and where do you get it? Rodney

You guys are very observant! The relay is the one that George recommends in his Duraspark II schematic, to reduce the current load through the ignition. Search on Duraspark II and you will find the schematic.

glad others asked those questions as I was stumped about the items! (sort of guess though)

as for the "kill" switch, that is pretty well hiden as one would need a wrench set to remove firewall bump to access. I recall having a similar switch there, but it was something about setting the dual points dwell.

From the regulator, can I assume you are running the original design altenator, or is a regulator needed with updated altenators also?

And is the shown arrangement of belt driven accesories for the reduce bump firewall?

With regard to the Voltage Regulator - I am still using my Ford 1G (3 Wire) alternator. I took it to one of the local shops (Luna Industries 520.792.3080) in Tucson, and had it rebuilt. It tested at 78A output after the rebuild. The rebuild, which put better "guts" in the stock case cost $92. They replaced bearings, brushes, rotor, rectifier and field coils.

I saw no advantage (really) to converting to a 1 wire alternator, due to the inconvenience of figuring out how to rewire things. I can't remember now, but there was another issue with going to a single wire alternator - maybe it had something to do with the charge / discharge light?

The belt driven accessories are set up like that for the flat firewall cover, and the (future) flatter bulkhead. It won't be 100% flat, but enough to give my wife about 3 more inches of seat adjustment.

Here are the remainder of the pictures of the ZF Safety Wire project. Actually, once the ZF differential case was opened up, it was pretty straightforward. We didn't get into the gear sets.

One thing that is hard to find in one place are all the torque values. Here's a good resource - but it doesn't have them all. When you do this, you can give Lloyd, Les, Ron, or Dennis a call - they know all this stuff off the top of their heads...

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